Oceanside traffic unit focuses on DUI enforcement

OCEANSIDE —— Traffic officers are focusing on driving under the
influence enforcement to try to make city streets safer for
everyone, authorities said recently.

A grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety paid for
two additional traffic officers in late 2003 to concentrate just on
DUI enforcement, traffic Lt. Rick Sing said last week. The
lieutenant said the officers have made a difference in a little
over a year's time.

In 2004, Oceanside officers made 870 DUI arrests department-wide
—— of that number 221 were made just by two DUI officers, Sing
said. DUI Officer Ignacio Lopez was honored by Mothers Against
Drunk Drivers for making 114 DUI arrests last year, the third most
in San Diego County.

The two DUI officers are constantly roving the city looking for
impaired drivers, and also arrange for frequent sobriety
checkpoints or sweeps across the city, Sing said.

"We try to hit one a month," Sing said.

Since receiving the grant in September 2003, police have been
keeping track of the statistics on arrests, he said. The unit has
held 12 checkpoints or sweeps in which they made 40 DUI arrests,
after contacting 4,100 drivers in vehicles and conducting 88 field
sobriety tests, Lopez said.

Additionally, officers check for driver's licenses and safety
equipment and have made many citations and impounded 284 vehicles
as part of the sweeps, he said.

The two officers also run an education program targeting Camp
Pendleton Marines, as well as high school students, to try to get
the word out about the dangers of drinking and driving.

Officers are trying to place less emphasis on the 0.08 legal
limit for driving under the influence of alcohol, because some
people can be impaired at .05, Cpl. Randy Judd said.

"We're trying to get people to have a designated driver if
they're going to drink," Judd said.

Officers are also working with establishments that provide
liquor by including them in their training to show bartenders and
clerks the effects of drinking and how fast they impair people's
motor reflexes and thinking, Sing said.

Sgt. Kelan Poorman said there is no typical DUI driver, they can
be of any age, sex, or ethnic or economic background. While there
are DUI drivers out at all times of the day, there might be more
out on weekends, holidays and extended breaks, Poorman said. People
are also more likely to drink and drive following a social
gathering, he said.

Lopez, who is also a Drug Recognition Expert, said there is a
higher chance that DUI arrests will be made in the downtown area
and often those drivers will be younger people visiting bars.

Officers also make many DUI arrests in the Eastside and Crown
Heights neighborhoods, where there is social drinking, and along
Vista Way where there are a lot of restaurants, he said.

Sing said people have become more aware in recent years about
the dangers of drinking and driving, but there remains a problem
among people who think they can have a few drinks without becoming
impaired.

"Everyone of them you can get off the street, you can be pretty
safe in thinking you probably saved someone's life or their life,"
Judd said. "It's all preventable. We steer away from calling (DUI
crashes) an accident because it was preventable."